Archives of Shimenawa
Contributors
ContributorsMike’s interest in the connections between different cultures and their philosophies began during his year as a Luce Scholar (1977-1978) at Kyoto University, when he first learned the meaning of the shimenawa and translated the Heian Period poems of the...
Shimenawa Life Coaching
Shimenawa Life Coaching We offer practical guidance, including courses and individual sessions, for those who wish to explore these ideas in more depth and apply them for personal or spiritual growth. Our approach is flexible and can be tailored to the needs of the...
Shimenawa No Michi
Shimenawa no Michi Shimenawa no Michi is an organization dedicated to helping people understand how to navigate life, love and the search for transcendence. We deeply respect all genuine faith traditions and strive to present the best ideas we can find across any of...
About
Shimenawa no Michi is an organization dedicated to helping people understand how to navigate life, love and the search for transcendence. We deeply respect all genuine faith traditions and strive to present the best ideas we can find across any of them, including...
Playfulness
Playfulness I’ve met a very few spiritual giants in my life. Some were Buddhist. Some were Christian. But there is one characteristic they all have in common – a twinkle in their eye. I’ve come to believe that this twinkle in the eye is the defining characteristic...
Intensity
Intensity Ok, so you’ve been blessed with a strong activation, taken time for discernment, and determined that this is the path that Heaven has laid out for you. What next? You have now reached your own Rubicon -- you must cross it or turn back forever. Once you’ve...
WHAT IS A SHIMENAWA?
What is a Shimenawa? The universe might in fact be bound together by an network of connections like this that tie us to persons, places, and even to the realm of the spirit. We can learn to sense these threads, and follow them to live life with more connection and...
Activation
activation Nobody gets handed their destiny in the form of an organized route, like you get from Google Maps – it unfolds in small inklings. As you become more engaged with your situation HERE, you will inevitably notice things (or people) that trigger a positive...
Engagement
Engagement As you study the world around you right HERE and NOW and cultivate a sense of wonder, your level of engagement with this world will naturally deepen. This deepening can take two forms – increasing attention to the details, and/or the beginnings of activity...
Wonder
Wonder As you come to accept your current situation, you also come to realize that it’s your starting point for moving forward. You’ll want to make sure that your feet are firmly planted before pushing off for THERE. So you need to know where those feet are. What does...
Acceptance
Acceptance Of all the Shimenawa virtues, this first one seems to be the most difficult to learn to practice if you grew up in a culture that prized motion, progress, and results above all. Like most of what we call “Western culture”, which tends to be obsessed with...
The Shimenawa Virtues
The Shimenawa Virtues You don’t have to become some sort of saint, guru or Zen master in order to appreciate that benefits of cultivating these virtues. The Shimenawa Virtues are a way to think about what you have to do to get from HERE to THERE. We won’t claim they...
The World
The WorldCulture"With the exception of Sigmund Freud, there is arguably no psychologist who has had more of an impact on modern culture than Abraham Maslow..." History"The fact that doctrine, practice and community remain significant for the lives of individuals also...
Inspiration
InspirationAround the world, many have reported that their first experience of “something more” was triggered by an encounter with beauty, typically in the form of art or music. Several cases of this have been reported to me personally. Beauty often creates in us a...
Seeking Transcendence
Seeking TranscendenceMany Paths"I like to think of the world’s great spiritual traditions, and even traditions within those traditions, as pathways that criss-cross on their way up the same mountain. Some are gradual, some steep. Some safe, some extreme enough to be...
Navigating Life
Navigating LifeDaily Challenges"At 31⁄2, one could not expect Mac to know that the ninja life is as much about patient endurance as it is about glamorous attacks. Or that the first character of the word “ninja” itself (忍者) calls out this highly prized virtue in...
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Acceptance
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Daily Challenges
Guilty Pleasures
If you’ve been reading the articles on this web site, you know that one of our persistent themes is that Heaven has a job for you to do. And we’ve suggested ways in which you can try to find out what Heaven’s plan might be. This of course raises the question of...
Discovering Intentionality at a Gospel Music Concert
The year was probably 1970 or 1971. I was a sophomore or junior in college, and I believe it was a Saturday. My girlfriend and I decided to go over to Berkeley for the day, looking at shops and gawking at the “street people”. Walking around the campus, I discovered...
Discovering Alignment in the California Primary of 1968
If you were to ask anyone for a list of the most pivotal years of the second half of the 20th century, I’d be very surprised if 1968 wasn’t at the top – or very near the top – of that list. That year saw cultural clashes across the globe, with major ramifications. ...
Lessons Learned
Ninjas Don’t Get Cold
Last Halloween, my grandson (I’ll call him Mac) came over to spend the night after a rigorous evening of trick-or-treating and consuming his ill-gotten gains. His costume this year was that of a ninja, complete with the usual array of ninja weapons – throwing stars,...
Learning the Real Meaning of Negotiation in the Medina of Tangier
The summer of 1972 was the time between college and grad school, so it seemed a good time to head to Europe for a 2-month vacation. While we were there, we decided to make a short visit to Morocco, to see what it was like. So we took a train to Malaga on the...
Other Stories
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The Shimenawa Way
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Crazy Fuckers
Who are These Crazy Fuckers?
Whenever one thinks of a serious spiritual quest, certain images are likely to come to mind, regardless of whether your chosen Tradition is Eastern or Western – churches / temples smoky with incense and interminable chanting, half-naked seekers exposing themselves to...
Catherine
If someone were to propose a movie based on the life of a young woman of the late Middle Ages who was functionally illiterate even into adulthood and tortured herself with acts of penance, yet managed to become a counselor to princes and an advisor to two Popes, you...
Drukpa Kunley (1455 – 1529)
Of all the crazy fuckers we are likely to talk about, Drukpa Kunley is likely to merit the title of craziest. Hands down, at least if we are to take the record of his exploits at face value. Trouble is, however, that the details of some of his exploits are so...
Economics
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Many Paths
Hide and Seek
“What do I do if I practice and practice and practice, and nothing ever happens?” “What do I do if I pray and pray and pray, and God never answers my prayers?” This question, in all its variations, is one of the most critical questions you will face in the course of...
Crossing Paths
I first became aware of the phenomenon I call “crossing paths” several years ago when I was interviewing some Buddhist friends of mine for a class I was teaching on World Religions. inquiring into their reasons for becoming Buddhists, two or three of them mentioned...
Poetry
Streets of Miyako¹
To appear in Echoes 2020: Writers in Kyoto Anthology #4, which will be available from Amazon Horikawa-dori2 at the grave of Lady Murasaki3 her guardian treespreading its yukata4beckons Horikawa-dori at the grave of Lady Murasaki grizzled gray visitorhands gloved in...
Scribbled in Miyako¹
Published in Echoes 2019: Writers in Kyoto Anthology #3, available from Amazon Short poems written at notable places in Kyoto. At The Sanjo Bridge² long after sunsetI wait for you at Sanjocounting stars as they appear At Daitokuji the chanting monks have ceasedbut...
Samadhi
No big brass bands
No angel choirs
No rainbows arcing
Only God knows where
Path of the Kami
No weighty tomes No dietary restrictions No splitting hairs And splitting them again Just footprints in the snow Already melting In the warmth Of a bright clear sun
Along the Columbia
sunset colors darken – out of nowhere a crescent moon 11/10/2018 – Published in the Haiku Society of America anthology 2019 first trip south – mama bird flies behind protecting her wing 11/10/2018 geese going south others heading north who’s in charge here? 2/5/2019...
Culture
Did Maslow Get it Wrong?
With the exception of Sigmund Freud, there is arguably no psychologist who has had more of an impact on modern culture than Abraham Maslow. Unlike Freud, however, whose occasionally scabrous imaginations have permeated our fantasy lives more than our everyday...
History
The Structure of Religious Revolutions
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn literally re-wrote the book on how we understand scientific history with his Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Prior to Kuhn, the established wisdom held that science proceeds in a (more or less) steady march from observation, to hypothesis,...
Nature of the Transcendant
Citizens of Heaven
I once had a conversation with a seeker of a truly independent cast of mind. Not being able to pin down exactly which tradition he was following, I cut straight to the bone and asked him – “So who is it exactly that you worship?” “Heaven” was his reply. Unwilling to...
The World Doesn’t Need a New Religion
I’m sometimes asked “Is this Shimenawa stuff a new religion?” The answer is simple and emphatic – “Absolutely not. The world doesn’t need a new religion.” But that’s only half the story really. Because while the world doesn’t need a new religion, we desperately need a...
Tanuki Tales
The Argument
Tanuki-san woke up and found himself at a party. The party was being hosted by the ancient Persian magician Zoroaster, who had used his magical powers to bring together the greatest religious leaders, thinkers and sages the world had ever known – from all sorts of...
The Fires
Tanuki-san was sleeping soundly when he was rudely shaken awake. He looked up through sleepy eyes to discover that he was being awakened by an angel. Not one of those cherubic little putti that you see around the borders of Renaissance paintings – this was what the...
Who Cares about the Truth?
Tanuki-san woke up to find himself in a classroom. The very distinguished professor was teaching a course in world religions, and today’s lecture was on the subject of Christianity. “Do you realize” the professor began, “that Jesus was not the son of a carpenter, as...
Where are You Going?
Tanuki-san woke up to find himself in a corner of St. Peter’s Square in Rome. In front of him stood the majestic basilica of St. Peter’s. Visitors were streaming out of the front door, buttoning their coats and raising their umbrellas. It wasn’t your typical Rome...
What is a Tanuki?
The tanuki is a small mammal indigenous to Japan. It’s scientific name is nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus, colloquially called the “Japanese raccoon dog”. In English, the word “tanuki” is most often translated as “badger”, and sometimes as “raccoon”,...